Newsletters: Newsbites

SANS NewsBites is a semiweekly high-level executive summary of the most important news articles that have been published on computer security during the last week. Each news item is very briefly summarized and includes a reference on the web for detailed information, if possible.

Spend five minutes per week to keep up with the high-level perspective of all the latest security news. New issues are delivered free every Tuesday and Friday.

- --Security Awareness Summit | Dallas, TX | Sept 8-16, 2014 Come learn from your peers on how to build Next Generation Security Awareness Programs. Hear from security awareness officers as they share lessons learned on how they took their awareness programs to the next level and how they measured the impact. Plus 5 courses. http://www.sans.org/event/security-awareness-summit-and-training-2014

Computers at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) were infiltrated several times in the past three years, according to the findings of an internal investigation. One attack was perpetrated through spear-phishing - an email message sent to just over 200 NRC employees attempted to get the recipients to provide their logon credentials. About a dozen employees clicked the provided link. A second spear phishing attack attempted to infect recipients' computers with malware. A third incident involved someone breaking into an employee's email account and sending malware to a handful of other employees. The NRC maintains information that adversaries would be interested in obtaining, including plant inventories of weapons-grade materials. -http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2014/08/exclusive-nuke-regulator-hacked-suspected-foreign-powers/91643/?oref=ng-HPtopstory-http://www.cnet.com/news/nuclear-commission-hacked-3-times-in-3-years/**************************** SPONSORED LINKS ****************************** 1) How to Detect System Compromise & Data Exfiltration Wednesday, September 03 at 1:00 PM EDT (17:00:00 UTC) with Tom DAquino. http://www.sans.org/info/165707

3) What Does Security Analytics and Intelligence Mean to You? Take this SANS Survey and Enter to Win an iPad! http://www.sans.org/info/165992 *****************************************************************************

The US state of Delaware has passed legislation giving a person's heirs the right to digital assets, such as social media accounts, in the event of incapacitation or death. The Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act, signed into law by Governor Jack Markell, allows a person's heirs to assume control of digital accounts and devices just as they would any physical assets and documents. -http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/08/delaware-becomes-first-state-to-give-heirs-broad-digital-assets-access/[Editor's Note (Murray): We can expect this legislation to have embarrassing unintended consequences resulting in many reports here. Most of us should leave digital credentials and instructions for their use to our heirs. Heirs should use the powers granted them under this law with discretion and in consideration of what they might find. ]

The Pittsburgh FBI cybersquad's successful work on several high profile cases has prompted the FBI to add agents so that the squad can take on more cases. According to Special Agent in Charge Scott S. Smith, the squad has created "a model approach to investigating and preventing cybercrime." -http://www.stripes.com/news/us/premier-fbi-cybersquad-in-pittsburgh-to-add-agents-1.298698?[Editor's Note (Pescatore): it would be a good thing to see more federal cybersecurity funding go to training and staffing national law enforcement, vs. continuing the trend to focus federal funding on the DoD/intelligence community Cybercommand type operations. ]

John Pescatore was Vice President at Gartner Inc. for fourteen years. He became a director of the SANS Institute in 2013. He has worked in computer and network security since 1978 including time at the NSA and the U.S. Secret Service.

Shawn Henry recently retired as FBI Executive Assistant Director responsible for all criminal and cyber programs and investigations worldwide, as well as international operations and the FBI's critical incident response. He is now president of CrowdStrike Services.

Stephen Northcutt teaches advanced courses in cyber security management; he founded the GIAC certification and was the founding President of STI, the premier skills-based cyber security graduate school, www.sans.edu.

Dr. Johannes Ullrich is Chief Technology Officer of the Internet Storm Center and Dean of the Faculty of the graduate school at the SANS Technology Institute.

Ed Skoudis is co-founder of CounterHack, the nation's top producer of cyber ranges, simulations, and competitive challenges, now used from high schools to the Air Force. He is also author and lead instructor of the SANS Hacker Exploits and Incident Handling course, and Penetration Testing course.

Michael Assante was Vice President and Chief Security Officer at NERC, led a key control systems group at Idaho National Labs, and was American Electric Power's CSO. He now leads the global cyber skills development program at SANS for power, oil & gas and other critical infrastructure industries.

Mark Weatherford is a Principal at The Chertoff Group and the former Deputy Under Secretary of Cybersecurity at the US Department of Homeland Security.

William Hugh Murray is an executive consultant and trainer in Information Assurance and Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Sean McBride is Director of Analysis and co-founder of Critical Intelligence, and, while at Idaho National Laboratory, he initiated the situational awareness effort that became the ICS-CERT.

Rob Lee is the SANS Institute's top forensics instructor and director of the digital forensics and incident response research and education program at SANS (computer-forensics.sans.org).

Tom Liston is a Senior Security Consultant and Malware Analyst for InGuardians, a handler for the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, and co-author of the book Counter Hack Reloaded.

Dr. Eric Cole is an instructor, author and fellow with The SANS Institute. He has written five books, including Insider Threat and he is a founder with Secure Anchor Consulting.

Mason Brown is one of a very small number of people in the information security field who have held a top management position in a Fortune 50 company (Alcoa). He leads SANS' efforts to raise the bar in cybersecurity education around the world.

David Hoelzer is the director of research & principal examiner for Enclave Forensics and a senior fellow with the SANS Technology Institute.

Gal Shpantzer is a trusted advisor to CSOs of large corporations, technology startups, Ivy League universities and non-profits specializing in critical infrastructure protection. Gal created the Security Outliers project in 2009, focusing on the role of culture in risk management outcomes and contributes to the Infosec Burnout project.

Alan Paller is director of research at the SANS Institute.

Brian Honan is an independent security consultant based in Dublin, Ireland.

David Turley is SANS operations manager and serves as production manager and final editor on SANS NewsBites.

Please feel free to share this with interested parties via email, but no posting is allowed on web sites. For a free subscription, (and for free posters) or to update a current subscription, visit http://portal.sans.org/